Four-Time Harry Potter Director David Yates to Helm Fantastic Beasts!

A familiar face is about to return to the Wizarding World. Variety reports that four-time Harry Potter director David Yates has signed on to direct Warner Bros. Pictures’ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! The big screen return to J.K. Rowling’s world hits theaters November 18, 2016.

The film, based on Rowling’s world of witches and wizards and inspired by Harry Potters Hogwarts textbook of the same name, will follow the adventures of the book’s fictitious author, Newt Scamander.

The first in a planned trilogy set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted “Harry Potter” fans. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the “Harry Potter” books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.

Yates is currently in production on Tarzan for Warner Bros. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Djimon Hounsou, it is scheduled for release on July 1, 2016.